Page 31 of Beauty and the Assassin
“Oh.”
“If you really wanted, you could’ve bought a gangbanger for a few hundred bucks and have him shoot your stepbrother.”
I start, partly at what he’s saying, and partly at the placid way he speaks. “Don’t things like that cost more? Not that I’m thinking about doing that.” I can’t imagine hiring someone to kill another person, even if it’s Roy. I just want him stopped.
“Life is cheap. You’d be amazed at how cheap.”
“So… What do you want?” My words are overeager. But I don’t care. I’ll do just about anything—except murdering somebody or hurting an animal—if I can be free of Roy.
Tolyan smiles. “It’s very simple. You’ll do exactly as I say, at all times, until the threat has been neutralized.”
I said stop Roy, but he’s speaking of neutralizing “the threat.” I have a feeling we might not be on the same wavelength, and that dampens my enthusiasm. “What does that mean?”
“Why are you confused? I said it very plainly.”
“I’m wondering what it is you’re going to have me do.” As relieved and grateful as I am for his help, my instinct says I need to have everything clear and out in the open. Otherwise, I’m going to regret it.
“To begin with, you’ll need to move in here with me.”
“What? No!”
“I can’t protect you if you aren’t around.”
I open my mouth to argue, then shut it. He’s right. It’s unrealistic to think he can protect me long-distance. And he can’t come hang out at my place. My garage apartment is barely big enough for me, much less him and three fully grown Dobermans. But what does “moving in with him” entail?
“All right. So let’s say I move in with you… Then what?”
He gives me a flat look, like I just asked him to describe how water tastes.
“I mean, like, do I get stuck here the whole time? Can I go to work? Jog in the morning? I still need to do those things.”
“I didn’t say you couldn’t. I said move in, not be imprisoned.”
I inhale shakily. That makes me feel a bit better. “Okay. Um. I guess I need to go to my place and grab my things, then.”
“That won’t be necessary, especially if your stuff is anything like what you had on earlier.”
“I can’t go around in nothing but sheets.” My clothes are cheap, but they’re better than bedsheets, for sure.
“Obviously.”
At least he’s not totally unreasonable.
He continues, “You said he’s going to come and kill you himself when you’re at your happiest, didn’t you?”
“Yeah.”
“So. We will give this man what he wants, so he’ll come out to play.”
My mouth dries at the notion of Roy not just coming to Los Angeles, but coming close enough to kill me, like he said. I run sweat-dampened palms over the sheet. “But how does that help?”
“Where is your stepbrother now?”
“I…don’t know.”
“Precisely.” Tolyan gives me a beatific smile. “You can’t stop him if he’s far, far away, little fawn.”
Did he just call me a little fawn? It sounds oddly intimate and sweet, and makes my insides flutter.
